---
title: "Advent and Christmas calendars: set one up step by step"
description: "Choose between the Christmas calendar, advent calendar and free calendar, set the dates, design the doors, put a game and a prize behind each door and test every day before you go live."
url: https://scratcher.io/help/games/advent-and-christmas-calendars
language: en
---

1. [Help center](https://scratcher.io/help)
2. [Games and formats](https://scratcher.io/help/games)
3. Advent and Christmas calendars: set one up step by step

# Advent and Christmas calendars: set one up step by step

Choose between the Christmas calendar, advent calendar and free calendar, set the dates, design the doors, put a game and a prize behind each door and test every day before you go live.

A calendar shows a grid of doors. Each day, one new door opens. Behind the door is a page, often with a game and a prize of the day. Calendars bring people back every day, which makes them one of the best formats for the weeks before Christmas, but they also work for Easter, a summer countdown, a 12-day sale or a festival week.

Calendars are a special format: you need the **Special formats** add-on, or a plan that includes it. If your plan doesn't have it, you see an upgrade note when you try to add a calendar page.

## Set up a Christmas calendar step by step

1. Create a campaign from a calendar template, or open a campaign, click **Add page** under **Flow** and choose **Christmas Calendar**, **Advent Calendar** or **Calendar**. The page comes with a logo and the calendar.
2. Click the calendar. Its settings open in the left panel.
3. On the **Content** tab, check the dates under **Period** (or, for an advent calendar, the dates of each door under **Items**). The calendar uses the campaign's time zone. See [Every calendar setting explained](https://scratcher.io/help/games/calendar-settings).
4. Choose how many **Doors per row** to show.
5. Decide what is behind the doors:
    - **One page for every day** (simple): under **Navigation**, choose **Next page**, **Go to page** or **Link**. Every door leads to the same place.
    - **Different content each day**: turn on the **Advanced calendar** add-on on the **Settings** tab. Then you build a page for each day with its own game, text and prizes. See [The advanced calendar: a different game or prize behind every door](https://scratcher.io/help/games/advanced-calendar).
6. Design the doors on the **Styles** tab: the **Calendar** look, the **Past doors** and the **Active door** (today's door).
7. Go through the **Settings** tab: for example **Allow clicking past days** if people may open doors they missed.
8. Add a form, so you know who played, and set the [participation limit](https://scratcher.io/help/forms/limit-participation), for example **Daily**.
9. Add prizes. See [Prizes behind the doors](https://scratcher.io/help/games/advent-and-christmas-calendars#prizes-behind-the-doors) below.
10. Test every day in the preview before you publish. See [Test your calendar](https://scratcher.io/help/games/advent-and-christmas-calendars#test-your-calendar).
11. [Publish the campaign](https://scratcher.io/help/campaigns/publish-and-schedule), with a start date on or before the first door and an end date on or after the last door.

## The three calendar types

| Type | Doors | Dates when you add it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Christmas Calendar** | One door per day | 1 to 24 December of the current year |
| **Advent Calendar** | Four doors, one per advent week | The four advent weeks of the current year. Each door is open for a whole week, from Sunday to Saturday |
| **Calendar** | One door per day | Today and the next 12 days. Change the **Period** to anything you like, for example the days before Easter |

The **Christmas Calendar** and the **Calendar** work the same way: you set one **Period**, and Scratcher makes one door per day. You can give a door its own dates with **Individual dates on doors**.

In the **Advent Calendar**, you set the **Period** and a **Label** for each of the four doors under **Items**. The label is the text on the door, for example "1" or "1st Sunday".

> **Good to know:** The dates are set for the current year when you add the calendar. If you copy last year's campaign, or a template made last year, change the dates first. Otherwise every door is in the past and nobody can open one.

## How the doors open

- Only today's door, the **active door**, can be opened. The day is counted in the campaign's time zone (**Settings** > **Localization** > **Timezone**), not in the visitor's own time zone.
- Doors for coming days stay shut. Nobody can open them early.
- Past doors stay shut too, unless you turn on **Allow clicking past days**.
- On the day after the last door, no door can be opened any more.
- The number on a door is the day of the month (for example 1 to 24 in December), or the door's label in an advent calendar. Turn on **Hide numbers on doors** if your door images already show a number.

## Prizes behind the doors

There are three common ways to give out prizes:

- **A different prize every day (instant win):** with the **Advanced calendar** add-on, every day has its own page and its own game. Add the day's prize to that day's game. See [The advanced calendar](https://scratcher.io/help/games/advanced-calendar).
- **One game for all days, with prizes that change:** keep one game and give each prize an **Active period**, for example **On campaign day** 3. Campaign day 1 is the campaign's start date, so make the start date the same as the first door. See [Prize schedules, prize pools and other prize add-ons](https://scratcher.io/help/prizes/prize-schedules-and-pools).
- **A daily draw:** let everyone who opened today's door take part in a draw, and draw a winner each day. See [Draw winners](https://scratcher.io/help/prizes/draw-winners).

If a prize uses discount codes, upload enough codes for every day. A prize can't be won when its codes have run out.

## Test your calendar

1. Open the preview link: click the link button in the top bar, choose **Preview** and open the link in a new tab.
2. While the calendar page is shown, the preview toolbar has a date list. **Today** shows the calendar as it looks today. Each date shows the calendar as it will look on that day.
3. Click the active door and play the day's game. In the preview you can open any day, so you can check every page before it goes live. Plays in the preview aren't counted in your statistics.

In the quick **Preview** mode inside the editor, the calendar starts on the first door.

In the editor, you can also turn on **Preview** on the **Past doors** and **Active door** style tabs to see how those doors look while you design them.

> **Good to know:** Test on a phone too. If **Only show active doors on mobile** is on, phones only show today's door.

## Follow up during the campaign

- Send a daily reminder email with a recurring schedule. See [Send emails to players](https://scratcher.io/help/campaigns/send-emails-to-players).
- With the advanced calendar, the campaign's **Dashboard** shows **Calendar completion**: how many visitors opened each door.
- If something doesn't work as expected, see [Calendar problems and how to fix them](https://scratcher.io/help/games/calendar-troubleshooting).

Games and formats

- [Which game should I choose?](https://scratcher.io/help/games/game-formats-overview)
- [Scratch cards, wheels and other luck games](https://scratcher.io/help/games/luck-games)
- [Spin the wheel: slices, design and settings](https://scratcher.io/help/games/spin-the-wheel)
- [Scratch cards: cards, icons and cover](https://scratcher.io/help/games/scratch-cards)
- [Slot machine, spin, dice and mystery box](https://scratcher.io/help/games/slot-spin-dice-and-mystery-box)
- [Skill games: drop, memory, puzzle and more](https://scratcher.io/help/games/skill-games)
- [Catch objects (drop) and hit the target](https://scratcher.io/help/games/catch-drop-and-hit-the-target)
- [Smash it, tap it, memory, puzzle, match matrix and bubble shooter](https://scratcher.io/help/games/more-skill-games)
- [Finish conditions, timer and points in skill games](https://scratcher.io/help/games/finish-conditions-timer-and-points)
- [Quizzes and personality tests](https://scratcher.io/help/games/quizzes-and-personality-tests)
- [Quiz questions and answers in detail](https://scratcher.io/help/games/quiz-questions-and-answers)
- [Quiz results, branching and calculations](https://scratcher.io/help/games/quiz-results-groups-and-calculator)
- [Design your quiz: layout, progress bar and buttons](https://scratcher.io/help/games/quiz-design)
- [Polls, surveys, votes and product finders](https://scratcher.io/help/games/polls-surveys-and-product-finders)
- [Advent and Christmas calendars: set one up step by step](https://scratcher.io/help/games/advent-and-christmas-calendars)
- [Every calendar setting explained](https://scratcher.io/help/games/calendar-settings)
- [The advanced calendar: a different game or prize behind every door](https://scratcher.io/help/games/advanced-calendar)
- [Calendar problems and how to fix them](https://scratcher.io/help/games/calendar-troubleshooting)
- [Leaderboards: rank players by points or time](https://scratcher.io/help/games/leaderboards-and-predictions)
- [Score predictions for football and other sports](https://scratcher.io/help/games/score-predictions)
- [Lucky number: let people enter a code to win](https://scratcher.io/help/games/lucky-number-codes)
- [Countdowns, pre-registration and campaign ended pages](https://scratcher.io/help/games/special-pages)

## Related articles

- [Every calendar setting explainedA complete reference for the calendar element: the period, doors and labels, doors per row, navigation, door styles, past and active doors, mobile, randomizing, numbers and individual dates.](https://scratcher.io/help/games/calendar-settings)
- [The advanced calendar: a different game or prize behind every doorTurn on the advanced calendar, build a page for every day, copy days, override shared pages for one day, give each day its own prizes and use an interactive graphic as a calendar.](https://scratcher.io/help/games/advanced-calendar)
- [Calendar problems and how to fix themDoors that won't open or open on the wrong day, time zones, testing future days, missed days, prizes per door, editing a live calendar, running out of codes and other common calendar issues.](https://scratcher.io/help/games/calendar-troubleshooting)

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